Friday, January 8, 2010

Well there were still grapes in the fridge and so what to do. Many years ago I recall watching a cooking program that I was sure was The de Medici Kitchen and there was a description of a flat-bread being made at harvest time stuffed and topped with grapes. OK, a sweet foccacia !!

So I looked through my books by Lorenza de Medici and could not find the recipe. So, then looked through other Italian books and finally found it in Claudia Roden's book "The Food of Italy" on page 137. Although my older edition has a different cover.

It is a very simple dish and a good way to use up grapes while making bread. You can just use all grapes or for a boozy taste use the dessert wine- soaked raisins. You can just use your favourite bread dough or pizza dough as the base with some sugar added.

2 comments:

Thanks for sharing your Thermomix version of this delicious bread! I've wanted to try making Schiacciata for years and now have finally taken the plunge with my TMX. Just thought I'd share my experience with this recipe - I used dried yeast and followed the appropriate Thermomix directions with no success. At the end of the kneading stage the yeast was still clearly visible as individual "grains" (i.e. it did not dissolve and disperse throughout the dough, and the dough failed to rise.

I made a second batch, where I activated the dried yeast in the lukewarm milk prior to adding it to the dry ingredients. The results were great - the dough proved well and the end result was absolutely delicious!

Hope you don't mind this feedback, just thought you might have made it with fresh yeast yourself and not had a change to test it with dried yeast.

When I use dried yeast, although i have been told it is not necessary, I always activate it with some of the flour and some sugar, just to make sure it is "working".

I wonder if the liquid that you added was too hot? and killed the yeast?

One day a week i help out at a local restaurant and they just mix the dried yeast in with the flour and then the liquid without activating it - but I like to see bubbles before adding more flour and ingredients.

... and don't apologise for commenting - all comments are helpful. If they are offensive i can delete them.